Staff for a Day

As part of the PWSA Glitter Ball, 2023, parents were given the opportunity to bid for the fantastic prize of pupils being STAFF FOR A DAY. The roles included Headteacher, Librarian, Site Manager, Chef and PE Teacher. The auction raised lots of money for the PWSA, alongside some big smiles from the lucky winning bidders!!

On Tuesday, Miss Harrison signed in for a busy day with Mrs Sheppard, but took to the role with ease. After a morning of training with Mrs Sheppard, she was even able to deliver her own training to her younger brother, Mr Harrison.

Miss Harrison wrote of her day:

On Tuesday I was Headteacher for the day. I had a very busy morning and I found out Mrs Sheppard doesn't always get her 'do to list' done! In the morning we checked the teachers were ready then we did gate duty which was very busy! We checked the classes were behaving nicely, and we watched a class assembly where I could see my brother. Next we walked around the school and a little while later we saw Year 3 learning and popped in to say hello. Then we listened to someone read and we counted the ice lolly money and we checked the register when it finally came in! We went to see some learning in the other classrooms and then we went to buy the teachers some cake form Waitrose! Finally, we gave out the puddings at lunchtime and did the playground duty. It's been a very busy day! Being a headteacher might seem fun but it is the busiest job ever!!

Mr Blank took the role of Headteacher on Thursday and helped Mrs Sheppard with all her jobs. He was surprised at the range and scope of a Headteacher's role and was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day. He finished his job by completing a Health and Safety audit with Mrs Lockwood, making notes from their observations.

Mr Blank said:

At the start of my day we opened the gates and said good morning to all the teachers and children. Next we went to Reception and saw their good assembly. Then we went to the amazing Rocksteady performance. When we got back I sent an email to Mrs Clark in the office and then we did some colouring until lunch. In the afternoon we visited the classes to give stickers out for good work and gave Year 6 some homework. Then I watched the first scene of the Year 6 performance. Finally, I went on a Health and Safety walk with Mrs Lockwood. Being Headteacher is harder than learning all day!!

Miss Joshi worked with Taz and her team in the kitchens at Prae Wood, finding out all about what the day involves when preparing and serving food to hundreds of children. After donning her apron and hairnet, Miss Joshi was set to work making and weighing out some cherry cookies before snipping up the sausages for lunch. After setting up the hall with tables, benches, cutlery and water for all, she did a fantastic job in helping to serve all the children their lunch that day. When everything was tidied away, she finished off the prep by making some beautiful cupcakes to take home for her family.

Miss Pulman, Mr Pulman and Miss Holloway all joined our Librarian, Mrs Hunt, to spend a day seeing what running the libraries at Prae Wood entails. Having learnt how the phone system works, collected a swipe card  and set up the computer they learnt how a book makes it onto the library shelves, each processing a title with a bar code, stamp and cover before assigning it a category and cataloguing it on our Library Management System, Reading Cloud. They worked in both Elder, our KS2 library and Monkey Puzzle, our KS1 space helping children to access titles and either read to them or listened to them reading. Cataloguing is an important part of the job and our young librarians also had a go at cataloguing non-fiction books and assigning a Dewey Decimal Number, a number between 0-999 which corresponds to its subject and labelling it on the book's spine.  

During the day, the Librarians of the Day worked on a display of their favourite books which will be put out before the end of term.  They were also allowed to order some books for the Library collection which will have a bookplate with their name in showing they chose it for the Library as part of "Librarians for the Day 2023".  There was also some publishing merchandise for them to take home too as souvenirs of the day.

Mr Pulman said he enjoyed issuing books to his friends and seeing Monkey Puzzle for the first time, whilst Miss Pulman liked covering the books with plastic jackets.  Miss Holloway said she liked everything, she didn't want the day to end and wished she could do it every day, or at least once a week. Mrs Hunt enjoyed working with her honorary colleagues and looks forward to hosting again next year!

Mr Woolford had a fantastic apprentice in Miss Behan, who shadowed him in his day maintaining the site. She assisted with gates and site safety, as well as having a go with some of the machinery used to keep everywhere spick and span. Miss Behan quickly mastered the floor cleaner for the hall and the plastic chippings on the KS2 playground were no match for her and leaf blower!!

Mrs Paine was glad of Mr Wilson's support during the busy Tuesday of Sports Week. They started with a review of the activities planned for the day, making sure everything was in place to deliver them for pupils and then it was straight to work managing the visitors and pupils joining their activities. Mrs Paine's competetive side came out as she challenged the new PE Teacher to see who could blow their whistle the loudest. The jury was out on who was the winner.....

WELL DONE to all the pupils involved- we are quite sure that, in the event of a staffing emergency, you could step easily back into the roles you took on for a day!

Thanks to our members of staff who welcomed their assistants and planned a fantastic day for them